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Cardassian Union
The Cardassian Union (also known as the Cardassian Empire) was one of the major factions in the Star Trek universe. It was the official political state of the Cardassian race and operated as a totalitarian regime sustained by a strong military. Established during the 19th century, the Union was known as one of the greatest powers in the Alpha Quadrant until its collapse at the end of the Dominion War of the 2370's. History For a complete timeline of the Cardassian Union, click here. Early history The Cardassian Union was founded in the 19th century as the union of three distinct organizations - the Detapa Council, Cardassian Central Command, and the Obsidian Order - into a singular entity. It was founded by a man known as Tret Akleen, on the principle that service to the state was the most important aspect of Cardassian life. The Cardassians had achieved interstellar travel by the mid-22nd century. Militarism Due to their home planet's scarcity in natural resources, the Cardassian people eventually impoverished, suffering from famine and disease, leading to millions of deaths. The frail population then turned to a militaristic ideology and relied heavily on the military's expansion into the galaxy to obtain the natural resources they needed. In order to sustain the population, the military colonized numerous worlds and in return had complete power over the people as a totalitarian military dictatorship. This mutually beneficial arrangement reached an impasse, however, and in order to battle recurring famines on Cardassia, the military occupied additional nearby planets and subjugated their native people to work as forced labourers. Being located in a neighboring system only about five light years away, the Occupation of Bajor began in 2319 before it was formally annexed in 2328. The Occupation effectively ended in 2369 due to political pressure from the United Federation of Planets on top of the constant terrorism and guerrilla warfare from the Bajoran Resistance. Their expansion also caused them to clash with the Federation, resulting in the Federation-Cardassian War, during which the Setlik III massacre was a major incident. The war cost hundred thousands of lives and severely weakened the Cardassian Union. It eventually ended with the signing of the Federation-Cardassian Armistice of 2367 and the creation of a Demilitarized Zone three years later due to the final peace treaty. This was a perturbed peace and minor conflicts continued between both sides from time to time, including the rogue Captain Benjamin Maxwell of the USS Phoenix who attacked Cardassian targets, believing that the Cardassians were re-arming and preparing for a strike on Federation territory. Maxwell's fears were not unfounded, as Captain Jean-Luc Picard found out while investigating the matter: Cardassian supply ships were supplying with jamming equipment a "research station" too close to Federation sectors; although alerted, he opted to keep a vigilant peace. Indeed, in 2369 the Federation was alerted when Cardassian forces relocated from the Bajoran sector towards the Federation-Cardassian border and feared for an incursion. Cardassians lured and captured Picard and then attempted to take Minos Korva by negotiating his release. The layout of the DMZ also contributed to the tensions. Due to the change in borders some Federation worlds became Cardassian territories and vice versa. Many of the people, whose worlds were turned over to the Cardassians, did not wish to leave and were granted permission to remain on their worlds. Disgruntled by the treatment they received from the Cardassians, some of the citizens decided to revolt. This gave birth to the Maquis. Decline From 2370, Cardassia suffered a string of setbacks and losses that would slowly whittle away at the foundation of the Union. As well as engaging in heated negotiations with the Federation and Bajor and suffering multiple attacks from the Maquis, Cardassia, as well as the rest of the Alpha Quadrant, faced a new threat from the Gamma Quadrant in the form of the Dominion. Without notifying Central Command, the Obsidian Order organized a fleet of warships that would operate in unison with the Tal Shiar, the secret police of the Romulan Star Empire. Together, both organizations launched a preemptive strike against the homeworld of the Dominion's Founders, only to discover too late that the Founders had orchestrated the attack. When the Cardassian-Romulan fleet discovered the Founders' planet to be vacant, they were surrounded by a Jem'Hadar fleet and massacred. Following the destruction of the Obsidian Order, an uprising occurred on Cardassia and the dissident movement overthrew Central Command, transferring power over to the Detapa Council. Despite the Union sealing its borders, word of the coup d'etat spread across the Alpha Quadrant, eventually reaching the Klingon Empire. Believing the coup to have been orchestrated by the Dominion, the Klingon High Council decided to launch an invasion of Cardassia, under the pretense that a Klingon occupation of Cardassia would better fortify the Alpha Quadrant against the Dominion. The Federation attempted to remain neutral in this conflict by offering no aid to the Cardassians and condemning the Klingon invasion, though this only served to outrage their Klingon allies and push them into withdrawing from the Khitomer Accords, ending the peace treaty between the Empire and the Federation. The war with the Klingons would bring the Cardassian Union to the brink of collapse as Klingon forces ravaged multiple Cardassian worlds, destroying all supply lines and military outposts, leaving the Cardassian military in shambles and the civilian population facing poverty, disease and hunger. In order to bring Cardassia back from the edge of destruction, Skrain Dukat, a former member of Central Command, opened lines of communication with the Dominion. For months, he conducted secret negotiations with the Founders, promising the Dominion use of Cardassian space as a foothold when they began their inevitable invasion of the Alpha Quadrant. In exchange, Cardassia would become a part of the Dominion and receive the aid it needed to re-establish its former power and expand its influence. When Dominion forces arrived in the Alpha Quadrant in 2373, Dukat escorted their fleet to Cardassian space where they overwhelmed the Klingon occupying forces and destroyed every last Maquis cell within the Union's borders. Membership in the Dominion With the Cardassian Union's borders returned to their pre-war state, Dukat had successfully raised the Union to again be a major power in the Alpha Quadrant. However, Dukat's personal ambitions, combined with the Founders' desire to bring order to the galaxy, meant that an interstellar war was inevitable. Since the Dominion required constant reinforcements of ships, supplies, troops and ketracel-white from the Gamma Quadrant to be able to conquer the entire Alpha Quadrant, the Federation decided to mine the entrance of the Bajoran Wormhole to prevent the strength of the Dominion from growing. This move was the provocation the Dominion needed to start a full-scale war against the Federation without coming across as the aggressors. The Dominion then sent a fleet of ships to capture Deep Space 9 and remove the minefield, which resulted in Dukat retaking the station. Thus, the Dominion War began. For the first few months of the war Cardassia and the Dominion were unmatched on all fronts, constantly forcing the Federation and Klingon Empire to retreat. The utter failure of the Federation's Seventh Fleet at Tyra was one of the many engagements resulting in complete success for the Dominion. At the current rate of success it was only a matter of time before Earth and the rest of the Federation were completely conquered by the Dominion. However, a bold attack lead by Captain Benjamin Sisko saw the first major engagement of the war where the allies were successful. Conversely, this was only due to the help of the Bajoran Prophets which stopped all 2,800 Dominion ships inside the Bajoran wormhole before they could enter the Alpha Quadrant. The sudden turn of events, combined with the death of his daughter Tora Ziyal, caused Dukat to have a mental breakdown. It was after this defeat, that Cardassians began to lose their status as equals with the Vorta and Jem'Hadar in the Dominion. After Dukat's subsequent capture earlier that year, his adjutant Corat Damar was installed as the new leader of the Cardassian people. However, Damar's position gradually became nothing more than a simple formality, with the Female Changeling and Weyoun running a de facto government. Shortly after Deep Space 9 was lost to the Federation, Damar was forced to call for peace by Weyoun, despite his personal objections. Over time, Damar was forced to obey Weyoun on almost all political and military decisions. Damar gradually realized that he was simply running a puppet government under Dominion rule and that Cardassians were becoming second-class citizens within their own territory. When the Female Changeling negotiated with the Breen Confederacy to join in a new alliance in 2375, she made territorial concessions on behalf of Cardassia. Damar, forced to sign the agreement as the designated leader of Cardassia without even knowing the exact concessions, realized his power had been completely usurped while seven million Cardassian soldiers had already died in the war. It was then that Damar began his rebellion against the Dominion oppressors by striking Rondac III. His military rebellion was effectively destroyed when Gul Revok betrayed it and the Dominion gained the necessary information to locate and destroy their bases. However, Damar learned upon arriving back on Cardassia Prime that he had had more of an impact on all Cardassians than he thought. The general population eventually joined Damar's rebellion and was able to cause a planet-wide blackout during the Battle of Cardassia. Collapse When the Dominion destroyed Lakarian City in retaliation for the blackout, the remaining Cardassian ships switched sides; this, coupled with the confusion and lack of communication with their main headquarters among Dominion forces due to the blackout, helped the Federation Alliance defeat the Dominion forcing them to retreat for a final stand at Cardassia Prime. While the war could be ended without a full-scale allied assault on the planet, by the end of the Dominion War Cardassia Prime was in ashes; devastated by the Jem'Hadar, who had been ordered to wipe out the Cardassian species for their betrayal. Over eight hundred million men, women and children were slaughtered in this planet-wide genocide. The Cardassian military was reduced greatly from two years of total war against the Federation Alliance, and their economy was crippled. In the Treaty of Bajor, the Cardassian Union agreed that all Alpha Quadrant territories would revert to the status before the Dominion's entry into the quadrant. Cardassia, a once proud, powerful and unrelenting force in the Alpha Quadrant, had once again become a planet plagued with famine, death, disease and destruction, leaving the remaining Cardassians to rebuild it and pick up the pieces amongst the ruins. Government The Cardassian Union was formed under a treaty that established a power-sharing agreement between the Cardassian Central Command and the Obsidian Order. Friction always existed between the two organizations as the Central Command worked to expand the reaches of the Union and the Obsidian Order worked to suppress it. The civilian Detapa Council was established to serve as the chief governing body between the two branches, however, in practice, the Council was virtually powerless, and the Union functioned as a totalitarian military dictatorship. In late-2371 or early-2372, following the destruction of the Obsidian Order at the Battle of the Omarion Nebula, the Detapa Council and the Cardassian dissident movement overthrew the Central Command in a coup d'état, establishing civilian control over the Union. In 2373, Gul Dukat secretly negotiated with the Dominion for the Cardassian Union to become its newest member. The Detapa Council was abolished in another coup and Gul Dukat was made the leader of the new Cardassian government. The Cardassian Union officially remained autonomous and would expand itself across the Alpha Quadrant. This arrangement was later revealed to be an inaccurate description of reality, as Dukat (and his successors Legate Damar and Legate Broca) were actually subservient to the Vorta and the Founders. The Cardassian military was led by the Central Command and the Cardassian forces were divided into several orders. The Obsidian Order, the intelligence agency of the Union, was sometimes referred to as part of the structure of the Cardassian military orders. The highest court of justice in the Cardassian Union was the Supreme Tribunal. The Cardassian Articles of Jurisprudence provided the laws governing treatment and rights of prisoners in the Cardassian justice system. Economy During the 24th century, the Cardassians maintained trade alliances with the Valerians and Klaestrons. They also were known to use the Xepolites and Lissepians as trade intermediaries in arrangements that may otherwise have been considered illegal outside of the Union. Many of the primary worlds in the Cardassian Union lacked an abundance of natural resources. For this reason, the Union relied heavily on strip mining resources from neighboring planets which were not part of other Alpha Quadrant powers, such as Bajor. As opposed to making trade alliances with them, the Cardassian Central Command would often occupy worlds and use the populations as forced labourers. The lek was the common form of currency within the Union. Military The modern Cardassian Union employed a military made up of both males and females. The actual size and percentage of males and females serving was unknown, but it was primarily male. This did not mean gender bias existed within the military heirarchy, as female Cardassians were just as able to promote to the rank of gul and legate as their male counterparts, and male subordinates showed no hesitation in following the orders given by a female superior officer. Ordinarily, the Cardassian military was a volunteer force, but during emergencies, Cardassians could be drafted. Under the Central Command were a number of semi-autonomous "Orders," which were roughly similar to a numbered fleet in function. Each order seemed to recruit its own members and, while no hierarchy existed, some orders were more prestigious than others. The Cardassian military made extensive use of booby traps, especially in retreat and tactical withdrawals. It tended to favour covert action and deception over direct confrontation. While making an attempt to take over Minos Korva, the Cardassians hid several vessels in the McAllister Nebula and waited to see if the Federation would trade the planet for the release of Captain Jean-Luc Picard before striking. During the Klingon-Cardassian War, the Cardassians were able to win many engagements against the Klingons by implementing decoys with sensor ghosts and holo-projections, before striking their confused enemies. When direct confrontation was unavoidable, the Cardassians employed a number of well-coordinated fighters in tight formation, in order to cover for any relative technological weaknesses. A typical Cardassian plan was complex and was said to consist of a "plan within a plan within a plan, leading to a trap." Ship classes Bok'Nor type The Bok'Nor-type of Cardassian freighter was a starship used by the Cardassians during the latter half of the 24th century. This type of vessel was constructed out of kelindide and rhodinium and had a crew of seventy-eight. It was capable of hauling fourteen metric tons of golside ore. Groumall type During the early 2370s, the Groumall-type was utilized primarily as a freighter or transport ship, and occasionally fielded by the Cardassian Central Command as a military freighter. Composed primarily of several an aft command section sitting atop the ship's engine section, the middle of the ship was made of cargo containers for the rapid transport of material. This class of vessel was equipped with low-yield phasers, making it significantly inferior to most things, and was barely able to destroy an asteroid. The weapons range was less than 400,000 kilometers, and had a noticeable recoil whenever fired. Galor class Galor-class cruisers were the primary class of warship used by the Cardassian military during the latter half of the 24th century. Named for a hooded warrior from Cardassian mythology, they made up the bulk of the Cardassian fleet for at least three decades and despite their relatively small size compared to other races' capital ships have always been able to hold their own in battle. The Galor class was in service by the 2310s decade. The class served widely in the Federation-Cardassian War and the later Dominion War. However by the early 2370s their top status in the Cardassian Fleet was being usurped by the newer, larger Keldon class. The Keldon class design builds directly on the Galor class space frame and technologies so the Galor class legacy will likely continue for decades to come. * Type: Warship * Length: 371 m * Width: 192 m * Height: 59 m * Crew: 300 (plus troops) * Max. Speed: Warp 9.6 * Armaments: 8 spiral wave disruptor cannons, 1 heavy disruptor * Defences: Deflector shields Keldon ''class The ''Keldon series enlarged and improved upon the successful Galor-class design to better counter a new generation of designs by the Federation's Starfleet and other antagonistic states. Starfleet first encountered these vessels in the year 2371, by which time the Cardassians had built a considerable number of these ships. The Keldons were the top Cardassian ships of the Dominion War. * Type: Warship * Length: 372 m * Width: 192 m * Height: 70 m * Decks: 14 * Crew: 500 (plus troops) * Max. Speed: Warp 9.6 * Armaments: 8 spiral wave disruptor cannons, 1 heavy disruptor * Defences: Deflector shields Territory For a complete list of Cardassian worlds, click here. Category:Star Trek Category:Governments Category:Military Category:Hegemony Category:Empires Category:Cardassian Union Category:Dominion